


Something Worth Waiting For

by ShiningNebula



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Best Friends, Canon Compliant, I guess???, M/M, Pre-Canon, Slow Burn, iverson gets decked, so far - Freeform, this is all over the place time-wise i'm sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-15
Updated: 2016-10-15
Packaged: 2018-08-22 12:02:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8285180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShiningNebula/pseuds/ShiningNebula
Summary: "Shiro is alive, and for the first time in forever, so is Keith"





	

**Author's Note:**

> in which Keith waits to be with Shiro for entirely too freaking long

Keith is twelve when he meets Shiro. He's new, just moved in with his latest foster parents, and his new school sticks him with some older kid to show him around the area. He doesn't want to like him, and at first he can't stand the older boy, seemingly too nice to be genuine, but as he gets to know the highschooler he comes to be very fond of him.  
"Shiro, will you be my friend forever?" He asks later, staring at the birthday cake his foster parents sent him to school with. Shiro blinks at him, then grins.  
"Hey bud, if you think I'm cool enough to be friends with forever that's cool with me. Now make a wish!" Shiro lights the candle and Keith stares into the flame for a second before he makes his wish and blows. I wish to be friends with Shiro forever.

Keith is fourteen when he starts high school. Shiro volunteers to be his Senior guide for the day and drags him around the building, introducing him to all the best teachers and helping him find his classes. Keith thinks it's going to be the best year ever, spending it with his best friend. As impossible as it seems, Keith is happy here. Until Shiro tells him he's leaving.  
"What do you mean? You're going to just leave me here?!" Keith shouts, tears pricking at his eyes. Shiro reaches out to ruffle his hair, like he always has, but Keith jerks out of his reach.  
"I'm not leaving leaving, just going to a training camp for the summer." Shiro tries to tell him. Keith argues that he's going away to college after, so he's still leaving. "I'll be back in August and we can spend as much time together as you want, just like we always do. Besides, you've got your friends and school, you'll be too busy to miss me." Shiro offers a soft smile, Keith scowls at him in return.  
"It's not the same. They're not you, and school is boring anyway. I'll have plenty of time to miss you." Shiro laughs to himself because it's true. Keith's other friends are nice, but they don't mesh the way he does with Keith, and Keith is so smart, he could probably sleep through all of his classes and still pass his exams. Shiro envies that about him.  
"If it makes you feel any better, I'm going to miss you too. I'd take you with me but I don't think the Garrison has a carry-on policy for best friends." Shiro grins again. "Now come here, I can't graduate without a hug from my best dude." Keith squeezes him tight and dashes around to the auditorium so he can be close to the stage when Shiro walks for his diploma. He tries to cheer loud enough that Shiro will hear him over the rest of the crowd.

Keith is fifteen when Shiro leaves. The summer was long and boring without him, even though Keith DID make an effort to spend some time with his schoolmates. He had stopped going out with them when they started referring to Shiro as his absentee boyfriend. Shiro isn't his boyfriend. But the constant teasing and a strange twist in his gut whenever he gets a text from his friend makes Keith realize, part of him WANTS Shiro to be his boyfriend. By the time Shiro has to leave for college, Keith is sure of it. He likes Shiro, and he has no idea what to do about it. Shiro finds him sitting on the front steps alone while the rest of his friends and family are inside for his going away party.  
"So what's eating Kogane Keith?" Shiro asks, plopping down on the cement beside him. He's filled out over the summer, broad shoulders wrapped in a layer of muscle that he didn't have before. Keith feels tiny and childish next to him.  
"Well, my best friend is going away to college without me, so that kinda sucks. My other friends turned out to be super lame and school is boring as hell." Keith says, leaning back on his hands. Shiro nods solemnly.  
"That's rough buddy." He says, taking a swig of his soda. Keith snorts. Maybe one day they'll grow out of making bad TV references to each other. He hopes not. "So tell me about these lame friends. Seemed like you guys were ok when I left." Keith groans, not wanting to go over that again.  
"They weren't you. Nobody gets my TV references, nobody laughs at my jokes, nobody likes the same stuff we like. And everybody thinks I'm dating you." That makes Shiro laugh.  
"Me? Dating the mighty Keith? I'm honored." Keith shoves him, making the older boy cackle. "Why would you be interested in my boring ass? All I do is talk about space and work out."  
"I like space." Keith says simply. He pauses and starts again. "Hey Shiro, would you date me?" Shiro snorts, Keith tries to keep his face blank.  
"Dude, I'm way too old for you."  
"You're only nineteen!"  
"I'm old enough to be your foster parent." Keith pulls a face at that. Dating any of his foster parents would just be gross.  
"If I was older, or if you were younger, would you think about it?" Shiro is quiet, thinking.  
"Yeah." He says at last. "Yeah, I probably would." They're quiet for a while again. Keith slowly works up the courage to tell Shiro what he really means. If Shiro doesn't feel the same he won't have to see him again for months.  
"I'll wait for you." Keith says bluntly. Shiro opens his mouth to protest, but Keith knows him well enough to know what he's going to say. He's too young, they're too far apart in age, he won't want Shiro when he's older, he doesn't know what he wants. "I mean it Takashi! I'll wait. I'll study hard, I'll graduate with honors like you did. I'll go to the Garrison. I'll follow you wherever. Just promise me you'll think about it. Ok?"  
The silence stretches between them. Shiro looks at Keith, really looks at him. And he knows, he's known for years, that he could fall for Keith if he lets himself. But now is not the time. Keith is too young, they're in such different places, it wouldn't be right. So he holds on. And he reaches out to ruffle Keith's hair, just like he always has.  
"Tell you what, you study hard, get good grades, and maybe if you still feel the same we'll talk about it when you graduate, ok?" Keith frowns at Shiro's words, but he knows Shiro doesn't do anything without a reason, so he nods. "Come on," Shiro says, standing and pulling Keith with him. "Can't have my last party with my best friend moping on the front steps. Let's go raid the buffet before my uncle eats it all."

Keith is seventeen when he graduates, early and with honors, just like he promised. Shiro is there, cheering louder than anyone else. He throws Keith over his shoulder and parades him around proudly. Keith is sure that it's awkward but Shiro refuses to put him down. Shiro's made sure to throw him a graduation party, and Keith is surrounded by the few friends and what little family he has, but his focus is on Shiro. He accepts the small gifts he's presented with, eats some cake, tries not to laugh when Shiro decides to practice his standup by telling a bunch of embarrassing stories about all the dumb stuff they used to get up to during the summers. He'll get Shiro back for that when he graduates from the Garrison, he vows. That night Shiro tosses him a bag.  
"This hasn't fit in ages but I know you always liked it." He says. Keith opens the bag with only a hint of suspicion- it wouldn't be the first time Shiro's pranked him with a fake gift- but gasps when he pulls the red jacket out. It was Shiro's old favorite, the one Keith had begged constantly to borrow though Shiro never let him. The next weekend he packs up his things and prepares for training camp. He knows Shiro set some records when he went, and Keith is determined to set some of his own. He has to do well if Shiro is going to take him seriously. The red jacket is loose around his shoulders, hanging just above his hips. The weight of it is comforting, like an arm casually thrown over his shoulders. It reminds him of Shiro, the reason he's there, and he drives himself to be the best at whatever they can throw at him. Turns out Keith is good at flying. Really good. He didn't just set a few records, he beat all of them. Including Shiro's.  
Keith is almost eighteen when he enters the Galaxy Garrison. He's seated right at the front with all the other top ranked students, right in front of the stage. Shiro winks at him from his place on the stage, representing everything it means to be a cadet. They don't get a chance to talk until nearly a week later but when they finally have the afternoon off the spend every minute of it together.  
"I'm still waiting." Keith says while Shiro walks him back to his dorm. "If you're still thinking." They haven't talked about it in a long time, but Shiro knows what he means. He shakes his head.  
"Keith, we can't." He starts to explain, with his rank promotion and the Kerberos flight coming up and Keith just starting classes, and Keith is still so young, but Keith holds a hand up and he stops.  
"It's ok Shiro, I understand. I'll wait." Keith is older now, and he understands better that it's as much about Shiro being ready as it is about himself. He gives Shiro a small smile and lets himself into his room. "Get some sleep before I kick your ass in tomorrow's practice fight." Shiro's answering laugh echoes down the hall.  
Keith is eighteen when Shiro leaves for Kerberos. He's not allowed to be at the lauch, immediate family members only, but he sneaks out and watches from the roof as Shiro leaves. Shiro's old jacket is draped over his shoulders, not quite long enough to keep him warm anymore, but it's a piece of Shiro they can't send away to space. He refuses to cry, telling himself that Shiro will only be gone for a few months.  
A month later the Garrison announces the mission's failure. The school is in an uproar, and Commander Holt's tiny daughter actually swings at Iverson, but Keith can't hear anything over the overwhelming emptiness that consumes him.  
Shiro is gone.  
Keith is barely nineteen when they kick him out. By then he doesn't care. Shiro's gone, and with him went every ounce of Keith's motivation to try. He moves out into the desert, into that creepy abandoned shack he and Shiro found forever ago. He's heard enough of the Holt kid's explanations to know that the Garrison is full of shit, and he's determined to find something. Some days it seems like he's just out of reach of something important. Other days it's like he could spend forever searching and never find anything but his own footprints. He tinkers with his speeder, maps out the area, spends weeks in the lion caves trying to decipher the carvings, but none of it leads anywhere. Once, just once, he lets himself cry.  
Keith has been in the desert for ten months when the escape pod crashes. Ten months of complete isolation when suddenly Shiro is back. His world shudders to a stop, and then suddenly starts up again. Shiro is alive! The oppressive silence is filled with the sounds of life. The sound of Shiro breathing, the whistling of the wind as he speeds effortlessly through the desert, the cacophony of voices that are just shy of familiar. Shiro is alive, and for the first time in what seems like forever, so is Keith.  
Keith is a month away from turning twenty when a cosmic princess from literal centuries ago makes him a paladin of Voltron and his life turns into some sci-fi fantasy adventure story. It's weirder than anything he could have ever imagined but he deals. He gets stronger, faster, learns things about himself and his team that he never would have imagined could be true. And he waits. Through all the ups and downs and crazy turns he's taken in his life, Shiro is the one constant. And he's hopelessly in love with him. Keith thinks that's worth waiting for.  
Keith thinks he's probably about twenty-one when he almost loses Shiro again. He manages to take out the Galra ship but not before the black lion takes heavy fire and crashes to the ground. Something catches fire and there's an impossibly huge explosion and Keith just barely manages to stay calm enough to land. He's out of his lion and halfway across the battlefield before the smoke clears, screaming Shiro's name and he yanks his helmet off. The other paladin stumbles out through the heavy smoke and slowly pulls off his helmet. He's alive. Shiro can't hear much over the ringing in his ears but he can hear Keith's voice calling his name. Then Keith charges out of the smoke and grabs him by the front of his armor, pulling him down and frantically pressing their lips together.  
"Damn it Takashi," He whispers against Shiro's lips, "I know I said I'd wait but I thought you were dead. Please just let me kiss you. Let me have this." And Keith kisses him again. From the time Keith first confessed Shiro has felt like he's hanging off a cliff, waiting for the right time to let go. He's always known that Keith is someone he could truly love, spend forever loving. And Keith has spent so many years of his life trying to prove himself to Shiro, he almost doesn't think he deserves that kind of devotion. But Keith is there, and Shiro is finally ready, so he lets go and lets himself fall. And every feeling he's pushed away for all those years comes rushing up and he's just so overwhelmingly in love with Keith that he almost doesn't know what to do. So he reaches out and ruffles Keith's hair, just like he's always done. And he kisses him back.  
Keith doesn't know how old he is. Maybe twenty-three, maybe thirty. He stopped trying to keep track a while ago. All that matters is that he's with Shiro, and he doesn't have to wait anymore. They save the universe one planet at a time and life still has its ups and downs and crazy turns, but get to be with Shiro forever, just like he's always wanted.


End file.
